Exam 15: Loss, Grief, and End-of-Life Care

A terminal patient asks the nurse if he could be given a deliberate overdose of medication that would "end this." According to the Code for Nurses, the nurse's most ethical response would be:

Individuals move through the stages of grief at their own pace. When a person is "stuck" in a stage and cannot move forward, this is called ___________.

A patient who is terminally ill has been unable to maintain good nutrition because of nausea and anorexia and has lost a great deal of weight. He is now unable to change his position in bed and needs frequent perineal care because of urinary incontinence. The nurse planning his care would include in the plan of care to:

The nurse caring for a terminally ill patient with renal failure would question an order for pain control that prescribed:

A hospice patient is unable to tolerate food or fluids and has advance directives that indicate that he does not want IV fluids or tube feedings if he is unable to take oral feedings. His family is concerned that he will be very uncomfortable without food or fluids. The nurse should tell them that:

When a patient admitted for terminal care is asked by the admitting nurse, "What has your doctor told you about your illness?" the patient states, "She says that I have a terminal illness, but I know she's wrong." The nurse recognizes that:

The nurse is aware that in order to provide effective support to grieving patients and families, the nurse must:

After a patient death, the nurse is preparing to perform postmortem care. The body is placed supine with the head raised so that:

Place the steps of postmortem care in their proper sequence. (Separate letters by a comma and space as follows: A, B, C, D, E.) A) Remove all tubing and equipment from the room. B) Cleanse the body of all body fluids. C) Position the body with the head of the bed raised 15 degrees. D) Dress the deceased in a hospital gown and cover the deceased up to the chest. E) Replace dentures.

A terminally ill patient is angry and belligerent. He yells at the nurses and his family for not coming quickly enough when he calls, and he states that he isn't receiving the care he needs. The nurse's most informative response would be:

When a patient chooses to die by refusing treatment that would prolong life, it is called ___________.

To help the family deal with the delirium of their dying relative, the nurse can suggest that they should:

A coroner is required to investigate death in which of the following situations? (Select all that apply.)

The five stages identified by Dr. Elisabeth Kübler Ross are __________, _________, ___________, ____________, and _____________.

A neighbor who was widowed 2 months ago gives the nurse his wife Helen's gardening books "because the two of you loved flowers." He tries to hold back tears, but begins to cry. To decrease his discomfort, the nurse should say:

During the dying process, patients may experience a bad taste in their mouth. Which of the following are appropriate nursing actions? (Select all that apply.)

A patient tells the nurse during an admission interview that his wife "went on to her reward." The nurse assesses that this statement is an indication that the patient:

The patient in hospice care says to the hospice nurse, "I want you to read my obituary that I just wrote." The nurse assesses that this patient is in the Satir Blevins (2008) stage of:

When the nurse notes an increase in the level of daily function in the terminal patient, the nurse assesses that this patient has reached Kübler Ross's level of:

The loved ones of a young man, who is in the intensive care unit on life support after suffering irreversible brain damage resulting from a motorcycle accident, have been approached by the organ transplant team to consider organ donation. When they ask the nurse about this process, the nurse's best response would be: